sdlotu
2/24/2022
Not worth reading by anyone, unless you enjoy rape fantasies.
For those who enjoy horror stories that manipulate your emotions and wallow deeply in the S&M aspects of horror, this story will likely be familiar and enjoyable. I do not enjoy either of these themes, and so the story was a struggle to read and complete, even though the quality of prose was decent, if a bit overblown.
Seeing the woman at first resistant to her man's abusive treatment, then succumbing to his violence as pain and injury turned into sexual excitement, was too reminiscent of the 'she enjoyed it' tropes of rape and rapists.
And it isn't enough that this happens once, to show the power the man has over the woman because of his affliction. No, it happens over and over again, as the woman continually submits herself to the abuse and control of the man that wants to destroy her.
The author makes it possible by portraying the woman as so hopelessly in love that she cannot separate herself from the abuse because 'she knows, deep down, he's a good person'. This is a another rapist trope, of the emotionally helpless woman. Unfortunately, the same woman has no problem being independent and even rebellious everywhere else in her life. It's only because she has fallen completely and irretrievably in love that she invites the abuse again and again.
The surprise ending, which moves this story from mundane horror to science fiction, does little to rectify the issues mentioned earlier.
Others may enjoy reading about a woman repeatedly subjecting herself to rape because of the unnatural power of the man over her, but I did not.